Fabulous fruit and flowers

I've dropped yogurt all over the floor and held up the queue of shoppers a number of times with my purse fumblings and inept bag-packing, but my local greengrocers Hasland Fruit and Flowers have yet to bar me from the premises, and for that I think they deserve a special mention on this blog.

This is the fab little shop I've written about before, where I've found Longley Farm yogurt, made not too far away in Yorkshire, fantastically-priced greens for Beans bunny, and lovely flower arrangements that make brilliant gifts for friends.


Hasland Fruit and Flowers

Hasland Fruit and Flowers is about a three minute walk from my house and one of the two greengrocers/florists that we're blessed with in the neighbourhood where I live.

I particularly like the aforementioned shop though because it actually offers more than just fruit and flowers, making it a really handy local shopping resource right on my doorstep. There are also eggs, yogurts and other dairy products, a huge shelf with pickles, preserves and other little posh deli items, and they even sell bottles of the hallowed Henderson's Relish (USE THE SAUCE).

And they're not afraid to stock new things. Earlier this week I bought a bag of apple and strawberry crisps that I've never seen anywhere before. The shop assistant said they were keen to try something a bit different. Sadly the crisps turned out to be not quite to my taste - but 10 out of 10 for effort from a small local grocer!

A look on the shop's website tells me that they also make up hampers as special gifts, with a selection of fruits, flowers, curds, chuntneys, champagne and chocolates.

Earlier this week, after going through my usual routine of fumbling with my change and ham-fistedly packing my bag-for-life (although this time I did manage not to drop a pot of yogurt all over the floor!) I got round to telling one of the owners about my mission to go supermarket-free for the year.

She seemed really taken with the idea (although I've yet to meet an independent shop owner who hasn't been!) and asked me how it's going so far. We chatted about the fact that shops like hers were working out cheaper than going to the supermarkets and she said she'd seen a real boom in business since the horsemeat scandal broke. Although to be fair, I've never found this store empty, so I'm clearly not the only one to have discovered this little local treasure.

I count myself really lucky to have shops like this on my doorstep and thankfully my pledge to spend the year avoiding supermarkets has opened my eyes to the need to support them.